References

4. The peace that led to the first Thanksgiving was driven by
trade and tribal rivalries.

Before the Wampanoag suffered losses from disease, they had
driven Europeans like John Smith away. “Now,” says Mann, “the
Wampanoag [were] much weaker because of the disease, and they’re
much weaker than their hated adversaries, the Narragansett.”

Ann McMullen, curator at the National Museum of the
American Indian^[1], says that the Wampanoag
weren’t necessarily looking to make alliances against the
Narragansett; but “because the Wampanoag were in a slightly
weakened position,” they realized that an alliance with the
pilgrims “could fortify their strength.”

The Europeans were valuable trading partners for the Wampanoag
and other Native Americans in the area because they traded steel
knives and axes for beaver pelts—something that, in the beaver-rich
New England area, the Wampanoag considered essentially
worthless.

“It’s a little like somebody comes to your door, and says I’ll
give you gold if you give me a rock,” Mann says. “The Wampanoag
thought: if we tie ourselves to these guys, everybody else will be
hesitant to attack us, because they could drive away these people
who are willing to pay gold for rocks.”